


Where We Left Off

by sweetshotofkerosine



Category: Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: Biblical References, Bisexual Wynonna Earp, Black Badge Division, Canon Continuation, Canon Lesbian Relationship, Canon Universe, Character Death, Cult of Bulshar, F/F, F/M, Flashbacks, Gay, Heavy Angst, Hockey Player Nicole Haught, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Interrupting Wynonna Earp, Lesbian Nicole Haught, Lesbian Sex, Lesbian Waverly Earp, M/M, Mild Smut, Nicole Haught Backstory, Post-Canon, Post-Season/Series 03, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Top Nicole Haught, Weird Plot Shit
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-05
Updated: 2018-11-29
Packaged: 2019-07-25 19:26:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16204106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetshotofkerosine/pseuds/sweetshotofkerosine
Summary: Picking up where the Season 3 finale left off, Wynonna and Nicole fight to save Waverly from the garden while even more mysteries unfold. Each chapter is an episode, and will be updated at the episode release time so it feels like the show is continuing. This is my idea of a season 4, and I'm putting a few songs at the beginning of each chapter to listen to while reading! Love you, Earpers!<3





	1. Standing at the Crossroads

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone, welcome to episode 1! This will start off pretty basic, and since it's the first chapter I don't have anything to recap(and this first chapter is mostly setup and blablabla), but here's some songs to play while you read!
> 
> Bud- Fenne Lily  
> In The Mourning- Paramore  
> Quiet Lies- Matt Mayfield  
> Joan of Arc- Holly Henry  
> You're a Germ- Wolf Alice
> 
> *Trigger Warning: there is vague, implied possible rape/non-con mentioned in this chapter. It is ambiguous as to what happened, and no detail is given. Stay safe!

"Waverly?! Waverly Earp?!"  
Gruffly calling, Doc makes his way through the brambles. Thick vines circle his feet, branching and spiraling like veins. They grab at his ankles, animalistically hunting for prey.

This is no heaven. There are no shining gates leading one to the garden, only crumbling stairs and a sense of dread.

But it is not hell either. Doc does not feel its fires rushing into his bloodstream. He knows hell, it is familiar to him. This place is not, which is much more frightening, the uncertainty.

Two boulders sit in a cluster of brambles. No, not boulders, but chairs. Thrones. These are the famed thrones where angels belong, where Julian once sat. But now they are empty, and underwhelming.

A clear, familiar scream rings in Doc's ears.

* * *

 

 Needless to say, Wynonna was not expecting to find a woman lying in her bed. Just a few short hours after losing her baby sister and the father of her child, and even sooner since her team went missing, Wynonna was not pleased to see this tattooed stranger asleep in her bed. She had just parted ways with Nedley, going home to sleep before she dealt with the aftermath of no longer being cursed. As any exhausted and rational person would do, Wynonna screams.

The stranger wakes with a jolt, and, straight black hair flying, tackles Wynonna. They fight back and forth, biceps and surprise against sadness, anger, and a great ass. The woman pins Wynonna down. Wynonna spits out the dust collecting from the broken walls, and asks "Who are you?".

The strange woman pauses, all raw muscle and sharp jawline. The crow tattoo on her forearm twitches as she wraps her fingers around Wynonna's throat.

"I'm Agent Valdez".

* * *

 

*Opening credits with Mel, Dom, Kat, and Tim as main characters*

* * *

 

Randy Nedley is afraid. Afraid to think of what could have happen to Nicole, afraid to bring his town home. He opens an email to be sent out when it's time for the townsfolk to come home, but he does not send it, not yet. Purgatory may be safe, but it needs a Sheriff to keep it that way. Nedley's no Sheriff, not anymore. All he wants is to finally take a deep breath and be safe from all the demons, and let someone younger run this place. But he won't rest, not until his girl is alright.

* * *

 

"Listen, Red Hot, if we're going to be sharing this place we'll at least have to agree on something" Kate calls, the sleeves of her flowy blue top brushing against a stack of curtains. " If you don't give me ideas, I'm hanging the peach satin".

"Peach satin it is," Mercedes responds, "We have mail!"

Without finishing their decorating, the two women open a letter from Wynonna. They read about the battle at the Homestead, and the aftermath in the forest (or at least what Wynonna knows of it). Mercedes gently places a hand on Kate's shoulder, knowing the vampire may have just lost her husband.

"The angel blood," Kate whispers, "Eden opened for him because it thought Henry was Julian".

Mercedes has no such insight. Her thick red curls are straight and untouched, and since she got home she hasn't given a thought to how she looks. She's worried about Wynonna,and knows her friend will be destroyed at the loss of the best of them. Mercedes leaves without a word, praying that the woman she can't quite understand her feelings for won't be angry to see her.

* * *

 

"Adam, is he here?"

A white cloaked figure faces the trees. Her voice is familiar, yet Waverly cannot place it. She sounds like home, but in a twisted kind of way. Like a recently forgotten memory, or one pushed deep inside.

"Waverly Earp, guard us", the shrouded woman says with little tone or emotion, as if dead, "Only an angel can seal the garden, bring me Adam and I'll be at peace, or you can seal yourself in this broken home"

"Eve?" Waverly asks. She surprises herself by speaking. She doesn't think of herself as brave, yet she's questioning a mysterious possibly demonic entity like the Brave Little Toaster she had watched as a child. "I'll find Adam, if you do something for me."

"Adam is not here, at least not yet. We are chosen, given angel blood and a new name, losing our memories. Except they messed up with me, I remember. We are given this blood out of love, and when we die, we rule. But Adam never worked out quite right. He wasn't human, you see. His angel never gave him quite enough, and he tried to force her. Now I am alone. Waverly, you only need the man you love, and we can seal this garden. Unless you want to die carved from marble".

Waverly had only just managed to let the words 'I love you' leave her lips. She had barely said it to Nicole, and she meant every syllable. Everyone she loves leaves, and she can hardly speak the words, no matter how much she means them. She loved Nicole, how could she suddenly love some new man, no matter how much it would save her. Had she ever really loved a boy? The more she thinks about it, the more see realizes how scarcely those words leave her tongue.

* * *

 

Ring. Ring. Ring. Nicole's head pounds, and her ears feel fuzzy. She feels cold metal against her cheek, and feels the mesh of a cage around her. She remembers the drugged alcohol from Wynonna, and Waverly's proposal. She remembers nearly dying, and fighting the beekeepers. The one thing she doesn't know is how she got there. Blood drips down her forehead in rivulets from the blow that kept her unconscious, but as the after effects of whatever Wynonna gave her wear off, she can think again.

"Alright, Haught, stay calm" she whispers.

Two more cages. Jeremy and Robin. The cages are in a row, and Nicole looks around and realizes she's seen this place before at Christmastime. They are in the factory where Bulshar took the first families, but why?

"For sale. If you can pay the price"

"I will pay any price if they are what you say"

"The girl will be of special interest. We have left her pure for you."

Out of sight, but not out of earshot. The first voice is deeper than the second. The men lower their voices. They drift towards her cage, but Nicole can no longer make out words, only syllables and a dull ringing.

"Master is gone. But we have her, to do as you please"

"The One? The girl who escaped to the river"

"Careful, she got a gun now and rumor has it she can shoot. Shouldn't be a problem as she's all drugged up anyway"

Damnit, what had Wynonna given her. She felt as if she wouldn't be able to move if the men came for her.

"Come on girlie, don't want to disappoint Master's memory, do you? You already killed him once."

A man with thick stubble leans in to her. His breath is hot and feels damp on her skin. His rough finger Stokes her cheek, and starts to move down her neck.

Pine. Pine sap and burning flesh. His smell reawakens something in her, and she drifts off into a flashback clearer than any memory she's had of the incident.

Six years old. She is alone, having wandered off to look at the ravine beyond the festival. He grabs her skinny arm, dragging her through the mud. The memory goes dark there. Even the most vivid of reminders never let her remember that part.

Pain. She awakes on a riverbank to screams. She can see from where she lies, so much blood. It all happens so fast, the men in their matching masks slash every inch of flesh. She is spared from death, but her entire body aches, she is covered in sticky mud and whatever else touched her while blacked out.

Nicole still has just enough strength in her arms to pull herself along the mudbank. A canoe is perched on the shore maybe 30 yards away, and she drags herself to it, crying in pain but too afraid to make a sound. She rolls into the canoe, and it drifts down the river as Nicole falls asleep, the last time she will sleep without the plague of nightmares.

Flashlights. It is nighttime when her canoe washes ashore. A young cop reaches into her boat, and she squirms away from him. He carries her to a grassy field, and the vision goes black.

Back in her real life, Nicole is thrown to the factory floor. His finger strokes down her neck, continuing down her side. She is too weak to move, unable to run away. Her finger with the ring Waverly gave her tingles. In a new surge of energy, she reaches up and punches him in the gut, sending him flying across the room. In shock, Nicole strokes the ring, and stumbles for the exit, afraid the man will hurt her again out of revenge.

* * *

 

Waverly looks down at her hand. a pulse runs up her arm from where her father's ring was. She feels a wave of exhaustion, As if she had just fought off an attacker, yet no one is there.

* * *

 

"Where are my friends" Wynonna yells to Valdez, who is a bit tied up at the moment.

"Friends? You mean the three you drugged and left behind?". Valdez struggles against the course rope tying her to one of the dinner chairs Waverly had painted. "A man offered to tell me where the rest of Black Badge is if I brought them to him. He took them away, and never told me anything!"

"Well get them back!" Wynonna yells, annoyed that Black Badge is back to mess up her life again.

"I'll help you find them if you tell me what happened to Agent Dolls."

"Xavier Pamela Dolls?"

A warrior's understanding. Wynonna hasn't said it, but the moisture gathering in the corners of her eyes, and her frozen, icy stance say it all. Dolls is dead, and they both know they lost a friend on that cliff. Wynonna sighs, and whispers, barely speaking, too quiet for anyone to hear.

The two women awkwardly shake hands, sharing a moment of respect over their newfound common ground. Wynonna takes the rope into her hands, and unties it so Valdez can free herself. The warrior nods, and walks out Wynonna's front door towards town without a word. Wynonna puts her head in her hands, and it hits her that her sister, her whole world, may be dead. The uncertainty is what cuts the deepest, the not knowing. That awful noise back in the forest, it roared at Wynonna, mocking her for not being righteous enough to climb the stairs. She was Chosen, Waverly said so. But what good is a hero who is only good for killing and drinking.

The doorbell rings, but whoever it is doesn't wait for Wynonna to collect herself, and opens the door anyway.

"Listen Earp, I'm all in." Mercedes, but different. For once in her life, she's dressed practically, in a leather jacket and boots like Wynonna's. The entitled rich kid aura is gone, all snark and confidence left over. "We're going to get your sister back".

"Mercedes?!" Wynonna is shocked. Her one friend the least involved in all this demon-y shit is here ready to fight, and Wynonna can't even dry her tears long enough to open her eyes.

"Listen Aphrodite, you coming or not?" Wynonna turns to face her friend. At some point she'll have to get up and face the world, but she sure wished that time wasn't right now. "Wynonna? You alright?"

No, Wynonna's not alright. But she's not going to say it, admitting out loud would be like giving up. She's already lost too much today, the least she can have is her dignity.

"Listen, I'm coming with you, wherever you're going. I know what I said back at Bulshar's dinner, that I would sit back and watch the world burn as long as no one hurts me again. I've always admired you, you and your whole 'charge first think later' thing. I'm in this with you guys. I came back to Purgatory and got my face ripped off by a dead goth bitch, and your sister was the only one who could heal me. I owe you one, and fuck it! I'd sacrifice this pretty new face if it means you and your gang make it through this alive." In that moment, Wynonna is the loneliest she's ever been. Everyone she loves is gone, and her backup is a retired cop and her one friend from high school who had gotten her face ripped off fairly recently.

She whispers sorry, and in a fit of desperation slams Mercedes into the hallway wall. Lips touch, grasping for air. To Wynonna's surprise, Mercedes kisses her back. If she ever sees Waverly again, she reminds herself to ask if it always feels this good.

A hot flush of embarrassment spreads across Wynonna's cheeks. Mercedes winks, and seeing her friend's embarrassment, leaves without a word.

* * *

 

Nedley finds a box in his office that he's never seen before. In big, black letters, Nicole had scrawled her name on the side, and a flap on the box is torn nearly in half. She must have been keeping records since she came to Purgatory; the box has papers dating back to a little over a year ago.

Most recently, there's a small brown notebook. Leather, or a synthetic version of. Most of the pages are torn out, except for a quickly sketched spiral staircase, and hastily scribbled notes on one. The rest are blank, never to be written upon. In darker letters, Nicole had written 'Why can we see the stairs'. She had herself listed, along with Jeremy, Robin, and Waverly. Many ideas are scribbled out, with 'all human' barely visible through the purposeful strokes of graphite.

The letters that are untouched are 'Gay?!', clearly Nicole's last attempt at finding something they all had in common. Nedley runs his thumb over the sketch, and he feels the staircase tugging, calling to him.

Hardly paying attention to his footsteps, Nedley has no idea where he's going. The garden is whispering to him like fate, and he walks deeper and deeper into the sea of trees, hardly noticing the snap of a branch beneath his feet, or the call of a coyote, returned home now that the demons have gone.

Stone. Ahead, there is stone. Little more than a pile of boulders,they travel nowhere. This must be it. Wynonna said she hadn't been able to see the stairs, so why could he?

"Does this mean I'm gay?" Nedley quips to himself, reaching out to touch the towering structure.

"It's not your time yet, old man". A voice, coming from the trees. It's Kate. The woman leans against the trees, and guides Nedley away from the stairs. She has three tarot cards between her fingers that catch the glare of white light from the snow

Five of Swords, The Knight of Cups. The Tower.

* * *

 

The tiles where Jeremy, Robin, and Nicole had fallen are cool on Wynonna's cheek. This is the last place they were together, and she wonders if she hadn't been too scared to let her team watch her fail, would they all be here together? She cries when she finds it. A white flip phone with a smiley case. A piece of Waverly, lying on the kitchen floor.

Wynonna scrolls through messages, and finds a tiny dot blinking on a map, labelled "My Love, My Life". Those two lovebirds are tracking each other's phones in case of disaster! Wynonna jumps up, and breaks out into a sprint.

In Nedley's office, Wynonna tells Nedley and Valdez to follow her. The odd trio pile in to a cop car, and take off after the blinking blue dot. But it goes nowhere, the tracker takes them to the side of the road in the middle of nowhereville.

Valdez picks up an iPhone with a bright blue case, and sure enough, the tracker beeps. About to give up, Wynonna realizes she knows this place. She's been here before. Recently.

The meat factory is not far from here. The kidnappers must have thrown the phone away to avoid being traced. Wynonna kicks open the factory doors, ready to bring home her friends. The warehouse is empty, save for one security guard. Nedley shoots the man in the kneecap, no longer caring as long as his Sheriff is missing. With the guard gone, Wynonna and Nedley pull Jeremy and Robin from the cages unharmed, but very sleepy. Still no sign of Nicole.

* * *

 

"The Survivor." Valdez says under her breath from the next room, as she gently strokes the redhead's cheek.

* * *

 

*closing credits*


	2. Drink the Moonlight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello friends! I apologise, I planned on posting at the same time every Friday, but AP Biology kicked my ass, and I haven't had a chance to write, but now you'll be getting regular updates (as well as on Clean (if you read it), and some oneshots, plus a new Wyncedes fic based around the movie Thoroughbreds). Anyway, to recap last chapter: Valdez is here and knew Dolls, Wynonna got some lady-action with Mercedes, Eve needs Waverly to find a man, Nicole is home and having cult flashbacks, and Nicole doesn't know about Waverly and Doc yet.
> 
> Here's some songs to listen to while reading, in addition to songs that are "playing during the episode"
> 
> Funeral- Phoebe Bridgers  
> Grown- Soccer Mommy  
> King Charles- Yungblud  
> Hurt Less- Julien Baker  
> Revelation- Troye Sivan
> 
> Trigger Warning: Homophobia in a flashback, coming from a religious institution

*Go Home by Julien baker plays softly in the background*

* * *

 

 

 "Wynonna?!" Nicole looks around the homestead. There is a sinking feeling in her chest, and the deep scars in the walls don't exactly help. "Wynonna, did Waves go out?"

Wynonna doesn't need to say anything. The rare tears crystalising in the corners of her eyes, the clenched teeth, the strange coldness that comes with loss. It's all there, and Waverly is not.

"Oh god, Wynonna. Is she… you know…?"

"Dead?" Wynonna puts it bluntly, laying it all out on the kitchen table covered in scratches from Doc's knives. "I would have felt it, at least I think I would have. The stairs. Something took her, Haught. I think she's still alive up there".

The two women melt into each other. Their, bodies shake in grief, but neither one cries. Nicole shudders coldly, her belly a pit of shock. Just a day ago, Waverly was here. Bobo killed Julian, Waverly killed Bobo. Yet somehow they still didn't get to win. The ring feels even heavier on her finger, like a bit of Julian had been trapped there before he died a second time.

"She proposed."

"Haught-Sauce, excuse me?!"

"She slipped Bulshar's ring onto my finger, and she said it. 'I love you'. She'd never said it, I know she's scared to admit to love. Everyone she loves leaves, even you. And now she's alone. She'll be cold."

"Nicky, are you telling me my baby sister proposed to YOU? I didn't think she had it in her. Then again, I didn't think she had the whole 'dying to stop the apocalypse'thing in her either"

"Wynonna, we're gonna find her. I… I love her. I would do anything for her. We're going to do this." The two are lying in Wynonna's bed, a rare moment of bonding for the two who's friendship is built on insults and alcohol. Wynonna, smirks a little, and rests her head on Nicole's stomach.

"I figure we're friends now, so we gotta act like it. Speaking of lady-loving, I may or may not have kissed Mercedes…"

"Wynonna! Or should I say Binonna? It's not like I'm surprised, Jeremy bet that you two had been doing it since before the widows!"

"I don't know what to do. I feel things, different from what I feel with Doc. She's more than the rich girl who got her face ripped off, you know."

Nicole latches on to Wynonna in a hug. Nicole is silent, still in shock. Wynonna, on the other hand, is fuming. A shot glass flies across the room, coming from Wynonna's trembling fist.

"We'll get you back, angel" Nicole whispers as she strokes the ring, finally starting to cry. The onyx stone grows heavier, but it feels warn against her knuckles. "I never got to answer her".

"Fuck! Was that what you two lovebirds were doing when I called you in? We'll get her back, I'd bet my ass on it."

"Top shelf!"

* * *

 

 

 *Opening credits*

* * *

 

 

"If you can't bring a man to me, I'll bring the men to you" Eve manages to be imposing, despite the flowing robes making her small frame more obvious, "They should all be in hell by now. In fact, I even brought a lot of them back from that damned place. More for you to choose from."

Sure enough, there are 76 bodies in front of Waverly. Some are wrapped in chains, screaming. All are shrouded in black, as if to hide their faces, like Eve has with her own. Waverly struggles to place her voice, it's so familiar, yet so icy.

"All you need is a connection. Lust will do, love can come later." Eve drags away several figures, rejecting them before Waverly can see them. These screams are higher, clearer; pained.

One by one, the shrouds are dropped. The men are ugly, and their exteriors look battle-hardened. There is no kindness in the eyes of the first few, only desire and anger. They remind her of the men at the shady bars on the outskirts of town, eyes lingering on her body for too long.

* * *

 

 

Knock Knock.

Nedley stands up to answer the door. Another lost dog, he thinks. Or maybe, now that the townspeople are back, there's a party that's too loud, or another mundanity

It's Nicole. Her eyes are puffy, nearly as red as her hair, which is sticking up in all directions. She smooths her uniform, and tries to flatten her hair to no avail.

Nedley says nothing. He pulls the woman who he loves like a daughter into an embrace, wrinkling his khakis in the process. The two stand there, and Nedley hands Nicole a badge.

'Purgatory Sheriff'

And just like that, this is Nicole's town. For real. She's sheriff now, and she's wanted it for so long. But it doesn't feel right, not without Waves by her side.

"I- I met a man. From the massacre. He was there when I got kidnapped. Who was he?"

Nedley doesn't respond to Nicole. He gently takes her by the arm, and heads for the holding cells. There are two men there.

The massacre. The cages. But their roles are switched, and now Nicole's in charge. Nedley turns, and places a palm on Nicole's shoulder.

"Congratulations, Sheriff Haught."

* * *

 

 

"Waverly?!" Doc growls, trying to soften his voice as he senses more and more life here "Waverly Earp? Where are you?"

There's a tree, with a single apple. Doc picks the apple, almost instinctively. Despite his hunger, he pockets it, knowing better than to eat it. His mama raised him a Christian, and he remembers a Bible story warning against eating strange apples in the Garden of Eden.

The vines shrivel at his feet when he picks the apple, and the overwhelming stench of death that's followed him since he arrived clears. He can smell something Earp-y now, and his nose is pointing him northwest.

* * *

 

 

 Lost in thought, Kate thumbs through Doc's papers, studying his life immediately before the well. Mercedes is behind her, holding up curtain fabric swatches, hoping to get as much as an affirmative grunt from Kate. The redhead has shed much of her arrogance, and the lack of makeup shows off a thin white scar along her jawline. Apparently Waverly's angel healing had left something behind after all.

Wynonna Earp kicks open the door, and an embarrassed Mercedes slips out of the room before Wynonna sees her. Wynonna turns to Kate.

"How did Henry get into the garden… or any of it… is he still a vampire?"

"Oh darling, I can assure you that Henry Holliday will be a vampire until the day one of us gets fed up and drives a stake through his heart. He came to peace with the new blood in his body. Tricked the system." Kate's voice flows like honey, both calming and mysterious.

"What we should worry about is you. You're tense. The only way you'll get anywhere, or find out how to save your sister is to relax and get your head clear. Start by dealing with ginger spice over there", Kate gestures to Mercedes peering in from the other room.

Wynonna finds Mercedes nervously wringing her hands on one of the many velvet couches. She's never been her friend this anxious.

"Wynonna I- I just want to get it out there. That I liked when you kissed me. I've wanted it for so long. Please don't be mad at yourself."

"I don't know what I'm doing. I mean, I've never done this sober. It was always drunkenly kissing whatever was in front of me… or those weekend nights back in high school. When we were high and lonely, and sleeping with half the school. Including each other. But it's different now, I'm sober, and I like it."

Mercedes leans forward this time, and Wynonna gently kisses her, the animalistic last time replaced with a softer, questioning feeling.

"Don't get too attached." Wynonna whispers, just loud enough for Mercedes to hear.

"Too late."

"Seriously. My love interests always die. First Dolls, then Charlie. And Doc's as good as dead. I don't want you getting hurt because of me, not again."

"At least you know I'm not going to turn into your sister's dad!"

* * *

 

 

 Ramone Quinn. Back to report on the final traces of the Black Badge Division. Nicole is seated at her new desk in Nedley's old office, lost in thought when Quinn approaches the cells.

The terror of recognition flashes through his eyes as he dies. The prisoner removes his mask to eye his spoils. His face is still shadowed, and the bearded man in the next cell grins at the new development.

At that precise moment, Nicole opens the door, to see Quinn's bloodied body, and a razor glinting in the hand of the man standing over him. Without looking, Nicole reaches down for his face, grabbing. Hurting. She's desperate to know why, why he killed a stranger in cold blood. She's tired, angry, and confused, so at first, Nicole thinks her rage is what does it.

He falls to his knees. Now even shorter than Nicole, he screams in anguish. There's a searing sound, like bacon on a hot griddle. Nicole remembers this scream, it's the one Derek made when Waverly grabbed his face.

Startled by the ring's power, Nicole slams the cell door shut behind her. "My angel" she whispers to the ring, as she pauses in her sprint away from the man she just hurt. Realizing that running away from a dead body will make her look guilty, she leaves a note for Wynonna explaining what happened.

Nicole keeps running. Anywhere but here.

* * *

 

 

Feet still pounding, Nicole thuds into an invisible wall at the foot of the staircase. She moans as her head wound hits the barrier, and a tingle in her ring finger confirms her suspicion that the ring has some power to it.

"Fuck you Bulshar!" Nicole yells, secretly wishing her demon enemy could hear her.

Footsteps. Voices.

It's Wynonna and Nedley, out on some sort of patrol. Funny, she thought becoming sheriff would ensure that she knew about these kind of things. Nicole crawls into a nearby bush so she can continue her mental breakdown in private. She listens in on their conversations.

"You can see the stairs too? I couldn't until Waverly knighted me."

"I've never come back here, I just discovered this place."

"It's funny,I shouldn't be able to see a staircase made for the righteous. I'm the girl who's only good at drinking and killing. Mostly killing. I shot my own Daddy, and then I shot my sister. I probably killed Waverly by now, and who knows what's happened to Mama. I can only see them because my angel sister made it so, I don't deserve it!"

"Who says that how your life has played out defines you. Your intention is what matters. And you have some damn good ones. You think I don't remember when you gave up your gun because you thought it would save Nicole, who you barely knew?. Kid, you're one of the good guys"

Nicole waits for them to leave, and she keeps running. Home, or to the place that feels he most likely home to her. The Earp barn.

* * *

 

 

"Pick one!" Eve yells "Why are none of them working!"

Waverly's bottom lip trembles. There are more men than branches, and she feels like she'd have more success with the branches. Each man looks like the last, cruel and unflinching.

A very fed up Eve throws a punch at Waverly's jaw, knocking her unconscious.

* * *

 

 

 

The ring static shocks Nicole as she walks through the barn door. "Hang in there, baby girl" she says, looking up past the roof to the sky. She climbs onto the rafters that Willa had made Waverly walk across as a child. It wasn't bad now, but it must've been terrifying to baby Waves.

Nicole had grabbed the mask from the cell floor without noticing. She turns it over in hands, stroking the bone white surface. It's a cow skull,like something a shaman would wear. But the men who wear these aren't, they remind her of the men in bird masks chasing after Mictian.

Suddenly she's 16 again. The nightmare jolts her awake, and she falls out of bed. A basketball skitters across the floor from where she lands, and now she's wide awake.

The nightmare is one of the usual ones. Not the one where there's blood and flames and strange men, the one that makes her skin tingle, and hurts every bone in her body. This was the other kind. The ones with the beautiful woman, and her family walking in to see her with this woman. She's doing what she and the girls do drunk at parties, but the woman in the dream gives her a fuzzy feeling that she doesn't quite recognize.

Like her parents told her, Nicole goes to the little church in town. She asks the pastor about the dreams, the one with the woman and the one with the blood. Her lip trembles a little when she mentions the woman, because she's never heard anything like it in her tiny conservative town that expects her to date the boys she can hardly stand to be around.

The pastor tells her that she's having homosexual thoughts, that he can fix her. He says that the violent recurring dream is a punishment from God, a representation of hellfire. But Nicole can't quite shake how real it felt. He tells her there is a camp nearby for people like her that'll get these thoughts out of her head, and save her soul.

But Nicole doesn't need to be saved. The thoughts don't feel wrong, they just feel normal. And something as normal to her can't be such a bad sin, right?

So Nicole storms out of the church. She slumps against the back wall, and lights a cigarette from a pack she stole from the gas station. With he head between her knees and tobacco between her teeth, Nicole finally let's herself think. For the first time, she admits to herself that she's different from her classmates.

From behind the curtain of long red bangs, Nicole sees two men wearing animal skulls exchanging a folder at the edge of the forest.

The familiar site brings Nicole back to reality. She steadies herself on the beam, and clenches her jaw.

"Keep it together, Haught" she whispers, wishing her little mantra was true.

* * *

 

 

 

 Valdez takes a nap on the police station floor. She's used to it, sleeping on concrete with banging noises around her. Black Badge raised her like that for more years than she can count, and it reminds her of being a kid, too innocent to know how cruel her world really is.

  
One of the caged men rocks back and forth, crying in pain. His mask is gone, and his face is burnt beyond recognition, and the tears only serve to inflame it.

  
"What brings ye to these parts?" The other man asks her. Valdez turns and angrily spits towards him.

"Hunting the likes of you down for what you've done."

* * *

 

 

 "Black Badge. I have to destroy them. They're monsters, all of them!"

Jeremy can't tell whether Valdez is serious or delirious. Wynonna put him on babysitting duty, and so far, all Valdez has done is pace back and forth angrily.

"The Scientist, The Son, and The Survivor. Black Badge said if I brought them there, they'd give me what I want. They liked. I should have never trusted a cult like them, not knowing what I know."

"Which is what, exactly? And if I'm the Scientist, and Nicole's the Survivor, that makes Robin the Son. What does that mean?"

"You… You don't know? Listen, I'll help you if you find the missing Black Badge files. Xavier Dolls hid them, I need these files, Chetri!"

"Xavier Pamela Dolls?!"

"Why does everyone keep calling him that?! Get me the files, boy!" On that note, Valdez storms out of the room.

* * *

 

 

 Now they're back at the stairs. Wynonna and Nicole stand to face the stone. Nicole raises her head high, and promises to go in and find her maybe-fiance.

They pull and pull, but the ring stays put. Now Nicole is certain that there's still angel magic in the ring. It no longer phases her to think about angels and demons, magic and monsters.

"It's ok, Haught. Doc only made it in from the angel blood, it may not be you that's the problem"

"We're gonna get her back, Wynonna. There's no other way."

"We will, Haught. She's my only family, and by the sounds of things, she's your only family to."

The two women lie down in the snow, arm in arm for warmth. Birds circle overhead, but neither moves, fearing that any action will cause time to pass faster, and ruin whatever chance they have left.

* * *

 

 

Tic-Toc, Tic-Toc.

Doc has a timer on his wrist. Written on his skin, the flesh sand movies slowly but surely. There's maybe a month left on it at this rate. It will run out, but what is it counting?

Angel blood. Wynonna couldn't get into the garden, and it wasn't due to any moral failure of hers. If it was that, Doc would have been blocked as well. Rather, it was something more supernatural.

The blood in Doc's system was mixed with that of heaven. When he drained Charlie- or rather, Julian, angel blood entered his veins. But he's bleeding, and his body isn't gonna make more of the angel dust stuff.

So he has a month. Maybe he can extend his time, but Eden is finite.

And Eve is here, her hood down. She does not see Doc, but he sees her. And the familiar face does not comfort John Henry Holliday in the slightest.

* * *

 

 

*closing credits*

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Psst! Chapter title is from All-American Boy by Steve Grand (aka the world's gayest country song)


	3. Damned if you Don't

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha remember when I said I'd be updating this regularly? Well... I killed off a character partway through my outline of the later chapters, and I may have wasted a lot of time trying to find a way not to kill said character. 
> 
> Anyway, last chapter Nicole found out about Waverly, and burned a guy's face. Waverly had to deal with Eve trying to find her a man, and Doc seems to know Eve.
> 
> Here's some tunes for this chapter:  
> Deep Sea by Snail Mail  
> We Fell in Love in October- girl in red  
> Spacewoman- The Breeders  
> American River- Destroy Boys  
> In a Sweater Poorly Knit- mewithoutyou
> 
>  
> 
> Trigger Warning:  
> -Homophobic/emotionally abusive family
> 
>  
> 
> ALSO THERE'S SEXY TIMES AT THE END Y'ALL

Swords clash, and guns fire. The three woman attack again and again. Time after time, Nicole takes Mercedes down, Wynonna critiquing Mercedes' strikes. It's been two months, and Nicole and Wynonna have worked nonstop to teach Mercedes how to fight. Every blow is a distraction, numbing the pain of loss

Strike, parry. Wynonna doesn't touch peacemaker, preferring to use old weapons from the basement of the Gardner house. Nicole is jumpier than ever, following every rule, in hope that good behavior can somehow bring her love home. These days, she buttons her uniform all the way up, and spends late nights at the station before she comes to their little fight club.

Robin's a bit of a help. He's officially her deputy, and she sends him out on patrol to deal with all the 'normal' stuff. She takes the tough cases, the unexplainable ones. The tough calls, when she has to tell someone their kid is dead, come nearly every day now. Purgatory is starting to feel more and more like hell.

* * *

 

 

 

*Opening credits*

* * *

 

 

 

Nothing good ever seems to happen over by the Welcome to Purgatory sign. This time it's a rusting van, with paint peeling like birch bark. It clanks and clinks towards Nedley's retirement party. Nedley's wearing a flower lei, everyone is. But the live flowers, shipped in from the tropics, are wilting fast, and don't seem to help the mood in the room.

 

But there is alcohol. There is always alcohol. Nicole, Jeremy, Robin, Nedley, Kate, and Mercedes gather around the pool table. None of them play, but they try to make small talk (or as much as they can without mentioning their missing friends). Nicole finally has her shiny Sheriff's badge looped in her belt, and the group toasts with Shorty's whiskey. There are three full shot glasses that aren't raised to the former Sheriff of Purgatory. Dolls, Doc… and Waverly.

 

Wynonna is slumped on the couch in the corner, drinking whatever's put in front of her. She stumbles a little when she stands, and her vision blurs periodically. Her phone rings, and it's a local asking for help with a 'special case'.

 

"Sorry everyone, but Randy Nedley's gonna have to leave his own party. Someth'n' about a shopkeeper ripping up a customer with claws. Earp out-" At this, Wynonna falls off the chair she's standing on. She picks herself up off the ground, and Nedley slides a shotgun along the bar to her, and he throws his own over his shoulder. As they leave, Wynonna remembers that they're both normal. Nedley isn't Sheriff anymore, and Wynonna's not the heir to anything but a crumbling house, and a legacy of daddy issues.

 

With Nedley gone, Nicole swings her leg up on to the bar. Standing above her remaining friends, she stutters for a second, not really knowing how this speech is going to go.

 

"You know… family isn't always what's in your blood. Randy Nedley has done more for me than my parents ever did. He saved my life for the first time when I was six years old. Since I came back to Purgatory, he's done it again and again. He cares so much about us… about all of us. He's my family, all of ours. To Nedley!" The rousing toast is surprising, the most that any of them have heard out of Nicole in months. Nicole jumps off the bar, and everyone leans in to hug her. But then the police radio on Nicole's shoulder crackles, and the intern at the station says something about 'uncooperating speeding ticket' and 'come now'. Nicole excuses herself, and jogs down the sidewalk to the station.

 

When She gets there, it's empty, except for a woman reading a certificate on the wall. Nicole gets behind the desk, and the woman taps her on the shoulder, and Nicole spins around in confusion.

  
"Mom?!"

* * *

 

 

 

Back at the Homestead, Valdez is sitting on a chair angrily mumbling to herself. Jeremy is on guard duty now that the party has been cut short, chosen because he knows a bit about Black Badge. The two talk, Jeremy trying to avoid the whole cyborg issue, and Valdez refusing to call Black Badge anything other than a cult

 

"They lied to me. They said they could heal me, make it all better after the accident. But I was just a kid. I didn't know that after my mom died, I'd be turned into some metal… thing. I worked there as soon as I was old enough. I ran tests on all the demons they caught. I didn't know what I was doing, who I was working for" Jeremy says bitterly. "I've never met my father- I didn't have a family until I came here. What kind of monsters fill a child with metal and force him to work for their… their cult"

 

"I've been there since the beginning. No, not then. Longer. I don't remember anything before Black Badge. I'm sorry they hurt you and your friends"

* * *

 

 

 

"I- I don't understand. What are you doing here? You said you never wanted to see me again!"

 

"What have you been up to these days. I see you're still doing your… cop thing. It's a disappointment, but I'm sure you've gotten a bit more… normal."

 

"Mama, I'm the Sheriff now. And I'm engaged… I think. Her name is Waverly."

 

"So nothing's changed with your… condition, I see. Very well. You were always the family disappointment. I thought you were dead after you stopped talking to us for so long. May have been better, than I wouldn't have a freak and a traitor for a daughter!"

 

Nicole clenches her fist, biting back tears. This life she's built for herself, the one she's so proud of, disgusts her mother. She's angry, furious that her mother is back only to say the same thing again. Angry that Waverly might be dead, that monsters keep trying to kill her new family, that she may never be able to tell Waverly how important she is.

 

Nicole forgot about one thing: the ring. As she clenches it tight, her mother doubles over in pain. Scared of her power, she runs. she just runs, away from her lives clashing, away from all the collateral damage.

* * *

 

 

 

The shop Wynonna and Nedley end up at turns out to be the one where Doc had bought the burning painting. Tourists litter the ground, their cheap cowboy paraphernalia covered in drying blood. A quick pulse check, and Wynonna learns they're all still breathing.

 

The shopkeeper's still here, popping up from behind the glass counter. "I want to appease them" he confesses unashamed, "I want the badges to look at me as one of their own".

 

Wynonna vaults over the counter, and lands a kick squarely in his crotch. He falls flat on his back, and Wynonna towers over him, a foot on his chest. "Black Badge may be a load of bullshit, but they wouldn't work with a demon!" For the fourth time this past hour, Wynonna's feeling a bit uncertain.

 

Nedley swings a baseball bat from the stockroom, and bonks the demon on the head like he's hitting a golf ball. "Sure wish I was in Punta Cana by now!"

 

They drag the unconscious demon back to the station, and throw him in Bobo's glass box. Yet another problem for later.

* * *

 

 

 

  
"Excuse me, Eve?" Waverly says coyly "Maybe my Adam isn't here. Maybe he's back in Purgatory, waiting for me. May I fetch him?"

 

Doc hides behind a particularly fat tree, running through the rules of glamour Kate had told me. He's not in peak vampire form, not after the angel blood, and being a creature of the night in Eden doesn't exactly help. He's weak, but Eve's face seems to soften as Doc struggles to stand.

 

"One week. You're back here, Adam or no Adam, in seven days." Waverly feels a little lighter. Maybe if she can find her friends, they'll have a plan by then. The vines twist around her ankles again, this time letting her out of the forest.

 

Eve turns to Doc, who is doubled over in the bushes from the strain of producing a glamour. Eve grabs him by the shirt collar, and shoves him like ragdoll into one of the decrepit thrones. He stutters, trying to tell her he's almost out of time, but no words come out. He's lucky he's stopped the bleeding,but who knows how much more borrowed time he has.

 

"You should be dead. I saw you die" he manages, but Eve's glare stops another word from getting out.

* * *

 

 

 

Nicole presses her spine against the cold, stone stairs. Her gun is out of its holster, and she strokes her finger along the barrel. She loads and unloads it, fidgeting with the little moving parts absentmindedly. 'We'll still make your life hell.' The words run through her head, like she's still six years old. The bearded man at the massacre's words stuck with her after the massacre all those years ago, and she realizes this is the hell he told her about.

 

"Doc… what did it feel like. I know you said hell burns, but was it like fire, or was it this. The sadness, the disappointment. Having your life ripped away while you're forced to watch, over and over. What does hell feel like?" Nicole whispers to the sky, as black birds fly overhead. She can still see the stairs, and they taunt her, reminding her that Waves is just out of reach.

 

The branches drag Waverly rougher than last time. That awful grinding noise is back, and the branches don't exactly release her gently. The doors grind open, and the vines drop Waverly onto the stairs, and she rolls down from the impact of the fall.

 

Her fall is broken by Nicole at the bottom of the steps. Waverly's flailing limbs knock the loaded gun from Nicole's hand. A few vines are still wrapped around Waverly, little tendrils of Eden. Nicole gently unwraps her girlfriend, and drapes her jacket over Waverly's shoulders.

 

*Elvis is in the Freezer by Ratboys plays*

 

"Yes." Nicole gasps, gliding the ring along Waverly's cheek. She shifts her tired fiancee in her arms, and carries her home, both still in shock.

* * *

 

 

 

Now Eve's vines hold Doc down. He wiggles, but can't quite get out. Eve throws a folded paper at him, and it flutters lightly into his lap, despite the lack of wind in this place.

 

"You can have me. Just let the Earp girl go!" He yells, as he pockets the paper.

 

"Oh you fool. All the girl needs is someone she loves" Eve flinches at the Earp name "Does she love you, cowboy?"

 

After all he's done, Doc doesn't quite know that answer.

* * *

 

 

 

Nedley leans against the wall across from the cells, eyeing the prisoners.

 

"Give me Nicole Haught" One of the men growls, cracker crumbs twitching in his beard.

 

"I care about my daughter far too much to put the Sheriff of Purgatory in here with you"

 

"You're no father to her" the man growls, pressing his face into the bars.

 

"I am." Nedley points to the man cowering in the corner,nursing the burns on his face from the angel Julian's ring "More than he is."

* * *

 

 

 

Waverly rests her head in the crook of Nicole's arm, wrapped in three bonus blankets and a clean flannel Nicole gave her. The two haven't talked, scared that if they break the silence, the moment will be over, and Waverly will be sucked back into the garden.

 

Waverly breaks the silence first. "When I was in there, I didn't think I'd ever see this town again. I thought you'd come in after me, but I'd already be stone by then. The only reason I'm still… flesh and blood is because Adam isn't in there. I need to bring in a man, and Eve wants me to take her place to seal the gates. Something about being an immortal forest spirit made her a little bitter. I have one week before Eve takes be back. I want that week to mean something in case I don't make it out of the garden again.

 

Nicole's heart shatters, and she kisses Waverly's forehead once, twice. "We'll find Adam. We'll make the week worth it, we do everything we've wanted to do. And we'll get married when Eve is gone and defeated, because you are the strongest person I've ever met, and you will beat this."

 

"Why don't we get started on that week of loving now?" Waverly bites her lip, and unbuttons Nicole's top button. She runs her finger along Nicole's collarbone, and Nicole nips at Waverly's lips softly at first, waiting for Waverly to respond a little harder. Lips touch, another button. Lips touch, yet another button. Nicole reaches to unclasp Waverly's bra with her left hand, supporting her head with the other.

 

Waverly rolls over on to her back, arching it as Nicole moves on to her neck. Waverly unclasps Nicole's belt clumsily, a little out of sync after the months spent apart. "I love you" Waverly whispers in Nicole's ear, running her hand through the redhead's hair.

 

The door slams open, and Wynonnus Interruptus is back. She tries to discreetly cover her eyes, waiting for shirts to be on before she greets Waverly half hug-half tackle. "You're home!"

 

"Only for a week. Our girl made a deal with a crazy forest lady" Nicole heads to the kitchen for a drink, letting the sister's talk.

 

"I don't care what you did. I'm never letting you go again, and I'll let Bulshar come back and destroy this place to hell and back if it stops me from losing my family again." Waverly leans into Wynonna and cries. Wynonna strokes her sister's hair, and doesn't leave until she's asleep.

* * *

 

 

 

Wynonna reaches into the a hole in Waverly's wall, where Waverly had hidden the skull when the room had belonged to Willa. She pulls Peacemaker out of the wall, her first contact with the blade since she killed Bulshar. running her finger around the silvery-blue blade, Wynonna raises the sword, and twirls it in her hand.

* * *

 

 

 

Doc takes the little fold of paper from his jacket pocket. He holds the little paper swan up to the light, and it almost seems to glow under the shadow of the forest.

* * *

 

 

 

*Closing credits*

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title is from Follow Your Arrow by Kacey Musgraves
> 
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> Anyone wanna tell me what they think is going to happen/want to happen?

**Author's Note:**

> Since I'm trying to keep with the show by using country songs in episode titles, this chapter's title is from Feed Jake by Pirates of the Mississippi (Which talks about gay rights, so that's super cool).


End file.
